170 – Same Type of Stand # 1

170 – Same Type of Stand # 1

When I close my eyes, behind the darkly sealed lids, another world unfurls.

A gathering of countless sprites, huddled and gossiping about the witch.

─So, what *is* a witch, anyway?

─I dunno.

Long after the squabble between field sprites and forest sprites, a quarrel that finally, dramatically ended in accord, the sprite kingdom had bloomed.

Their king, seeking to ensure prosperity ripened like summer grain for ages untold, learned of the ‘witch’, a being of mysterious power.

─My king. The witch is not to be trusted. They weave enchantments by imbuing concepts and notions, beguiling all who listen.

There is no kindness without cost.

The sage opposed the sprite king’s alliance with the witches, but the king’s craving for the kingdom’s enduring success burned fiercer than a starving ghost’s thirst.

The sprite king struck a bargain with the witches, and they granted him their power.

─From this day forth, your history shall be sung and carried on, immortal. But as the light grows brighter, so too shall the shadow deepen. Countless destructions shall forever trail in your wake-.

The kingdom, now possessing the peculiar power of ‘concept,’ began to flourish as never before. Yet, as the witch foretold, countless omens of ruin began to accompany the sprites.

The sprite kingdom’s king, 「Red King」 Ganymedes, was one such omen.

「Red King」 Ganymedes, excessively fearful of the ruin that could come at any moment, commanded the construction of a labyrinth beneath the kingdom.

Countless sprite subjects cried out in agony from the overwork, and the streams and ditches ran dry due to the exorbitant taxes.

But the Great Labyrinth was never finished, for Landuil, son of 「Red King」 Ganymedes, struck down his rampaging father and inherited the seat of 「Immortality」.

The sprites cheered the reign of the new king, Landuil, with raised arms.

─The old king is dead!

─Hail the new king!

Landuil was unlike his father, Ganymedes.

He commanded the construction of a palace, not beneath the earth, but high in the sky above it.

All to prepare for that inevitable ruin.

To create a castle in the sky, the lives of the sprites became ever more arduous.

The tale of this sprite king, Landuil, came to an end when his daughters, Melinoe and Macaria, inherited the throne.

The twin queens, Melinoe and Macaria, publicly declared that there would be no more building towards the heavens, and the sprites rejoiced at the decision.

Instead, the twin queens commanded that all the water of the seas be drawn up. To build a new kingdom for the sprites in the deep sea’s heart.

The tyranny of the twin queens ended at the hand of Melinoe’s son, Tainar.

The new king, Tainar, was a wise king.

He believed that ruin could not be avoided by building labyrinths underground, castles in the sky, or by raising up the waters of the sea.

He believed that the most important thing for survival was the wise use of finite, dwindling resources, and as a result, sprite birth control was implemented.

Thus, the laughter of newly born children in the faerie kingdom dwindled noticeably. Those who bore children in secret from the king faced harsh punishment.

An age where even love was forbidden.

The faeries yearned for a miraculous savior to end their suffering.

The wise King Tainar persecuted the faeries’ faith in this savior.

As a result, another civil war erupted in the faerie kingdom, and Tainar was ultimately slain by his own son, Vala.

“The Red King” Vala surveyed the kingdom, ravaged by countless wars, and lamented.

Destruction had already arrived.

Monsters and demonic beasts began to swarm from all sides, and Vala eventually confined them within the great labyrinth built deep underground in ancient times.

In the meantime, black rain fell, tormenting many faeries.

Finally, Vala evacuated the faeries to a floating city rising higher than the clouds, and to an underwater city built in the depths of the sea.

The faerie kingdom was thus scattered and ruined by the hand of the Red King Vala.

Such wickedness of Vala should have been ended by his daughter, the faerie princess Kore, but it could not be.

Because Kore could not inherit the duties of the royal family.

Instead, that duty passed on to Kore’s son, I, Ha Namjin, who continued the mad obsession with ‘destruction’ flowing in his blood.

—Underground! Dig endlessly underground!

—We must go to the sky! We to the sky!

—Beneath the sea!

‘No, we will go to the moon.’

I intended to send people to the moon, just as my ancestors had built the great labyrinth, the floating city, and the underwater city to escape destruction.

Whether this was the right choice, or whether it would bring about yet another demise, as history had often shown.

But I, Ha Namjin, believed my choice would be right.

“…….”

I opened my eyes to find the sun blazing high in the sky.

Not morning, but noon.

It seemed I had overslept.

“Ha Namjin! Why did you wake up so late?”

Pangdaengi was looking at me.

Seeing that the skin injured in the fight with Tang Dalgi had healed cleanly, I was rather pleased.

“The thoughts imbued in the concept of immortality are quite strong. Thanks to that, I’m enjoying a history lesson.”

Concepts passed down for a long time are bound to be imbued with thoughts.

Especially the concept of “Immortality,” within it, was a fear like a broth simmered from bones, deeply steeped in the hearts of the Kings who inherited it.

They sought eternal life, yet feared ruin and severance. Their terror, so poignant, it feels like it’s warping me too, you know?

If I spend so much time like this, my own ego, Ha-Namjin, will vanish, and only the identity of the “Crimson King” will remain.

Even now, when I close my eyes, the specters of the past keep shouting in my ears.

—Down into the earth! Dig endlessly down!

—We must go to the heavens! We must go to the heavens!

—The bottom of the sea! The bottom of the sea!

—In the first place, a birth control policy….

“Hey, ancestors, if you want to at least quietly enjoy your memorial feast during holidays from now on, pipe down.”

So many people are chattering in my head at the same time; is that why I toss and turn every night and end up sleeping in?

The moment I said something like that, an even louder uproar erupted within my head.

—What?

—This, this, this guy… What in the world…?

—Mind your words. There are many here older than you.

Guess I’ll have to get some more sleep.

# # #

“Ha-Namjin keeps just sleeping.”

“Idiot. Moron. Creating problems again while I just stepped away for a moment.”

Yu-Yeoreum, sitting in her chair, couldn’t hide her negative feelings as she looked at the boy, frozen like a statue in slumber.

But the boy, Ha-Namjin, was just sitting in the chair, his eyes closed.

Even poking his cheek with a finger drew no reaction.

Instead, the boy’s shadow wriggled like a living thing.

Unusually dark and thick, the shadow lurking beneath the chair made Yu-Yeoreum slowly reach out a hand towards it.

Swish—!

And then, the boy’s shadow sliced the tip of Yu-Yeoreum’s finger like a sharp box cutter.

Yu-Yeoreum wasn’t surprised, but Baek-Yeoul, who was watching the situation, was utterly flustered.

“Ha-Namjin’s shadow attacked!”

“Using shadows is just like the ‘Crimson King.’ Ha-Namjin is becoming more and more like the ‘Crimson King.’ If something goes wrong because of this, it’s going to be a huge problem.”

It would take at least a month to move all of Korea’s residents to the moon.

If Ha-Namjin went berserk in the meantime, the moon migration plan could be ruined.

And so, Yu Yeoreum and Baek Yeoul would often watch Hanamjin, sunk in a terribly deep slumber from which he wouldn’t rouse, with anxious eyes.

“Seo Gaeul?”

At Yu Yeoreum’s question, Baek Yeoul shook her head.

“Don’t know! That kid keeps wandering off somewhere! And Iingeengi’s gone too!”

“Hmm….”

Now was a crucial time, in more ways than one.

For Seo Gaeul to be wandering off somewhere at such a moment, that meant that kid must also be doing something important.

And indeed, Seo Gaeul was doing something important.

“Iingeengi, is it here? Where those b*stards are?”

━Kyuing.

“Sniff really good. If this goes well, I’ll make you delicious ramen. Ketchup ramen. You go crazy for ketchup ramen, don’t you, Iingeengi?”

━Iingyaing.

Seo Gaeul, following Iingeengi, was walking along a crumbling, severed railway. After walking for quite a while, D City’s train station came into view.

Soldiers in military uniforms, heavily armed, eyed Seo Gaeul with great suspicion.

“Halt!”

At their warning, Seo Gaeul stopped.

Not because she feared their guns, but to observe the armed figures.

They wore military uniforms and carried guns, but they didn’t quite seem like real soldiers.

Their hairstyles were far too unrestrained.

And there were so many women.

There couldn’t possibly be that many female soldiers, so they were likely civilians who had illegally seized uniforms and weapons and occupied the train station.

No, could you even call those who were illegally armed and occupying facilities ‘civilians’?

The more accurate word was surely, terrorists.

Which meant this was the headquarters of the ‘Genesis Crusade’, the most dangerous terrorist organization in this roughly-destroyed world.

Iingeengi had led the way well, just as Seo Gaeul had asked.

“Your bullets can’t penetrate my barrier. Don’t waste your bullets and your time needlessly, and instead guide me to where your boss, Gu Sejun, is.”

“……”

“……”

The terrorists simply stared blankly at each other.

Truthfully, Seo Gaeul wasn’t expecting much.

Terrorists, being called such because they disregard rules, would surely not heed Seo Gaeul’s words.

Like unruly kids who don’t listen to their mothers, they wouldn’t listen to their teachers either.

But there was always an exception.

“Follow me!”

“This way!”

The terrorists readily began to guide Seo Gaeul somewhere.

Heading into the depths of the train station, Seo Gaeul felt quite bewildered.

They were complying so easily, it felt even more suspicious?

‘Is this a trap, maybe?’

Seo Gaeul was led to the stationmaster’s office.

With hands tense with growing anxiety, she opened the door with a creak – and there, a man was pouring boiling water from a whistling kettle into a cup of instant noodles.

The man in the leather jacket with fur around the collar looked familiar.

He was a regular face on the news back when the broadcasting stations still stood.

“Gu Se-jun.”

“I figured you’d come to see me eventually, young miss. Took you longer than I expected, though.”

“You knew I was coming?”

“You’re a student from Yeongsa High, so you must have learned about concepts theoretically, no? Concepts have affinities, and concepts that complement each other are drawn together.”

Those who possessed multiple concepts tended to share similar ones.

For instance, those with the concept of “Wind” were more likely to awaken the concept of “Typhoon” than those with the concept of “Rabbit.”

Concepts were like that, drawn to those similar to themselves.

“The concept of ‘Savior’ that I possess, and the concept of ‘Miracle’ that you hold, are actually born from the same desire. That’s why, combined, they exert a greater power.”

“Then you know why I’m here, right? No need for drawn-out words. Let’s settle this like men.”

*Shwing-*!

As Seo Gaeul drew the demon sword, Danpung (Maple), of “Plunder,” Gu Se-jun slowly rose to his feet.

“To think we’d be fighting from the very first meeting. Though, strictly speaking, this isn’t the first time we’ve met. Nor is it our first fight. So, young miss, you might want to reconsider challenging me.”